Haywood playing, Gilbert up in the air

Just got back from the lockeroom and here's your update: Brendan Haywood will start against the Bucks tonight. He said that sore right ankle feels better. Eddie Jordan said Gilbert and his sore right shoulder will be a game-time decision but I caught Gilbert on his way to the trainer's room and he said he was playing. "I just have to work on my shoulder a little bit."

I'd bet Mike Lee's next paycheck that Gilbert starts. I'll check back later with an update.

The best part is he is a good person as well. He has stated he does not even want a max contract if it's going to keep the team from fielding a championship team. The Wiz are getting a lot of value from Jamison, Butler, and Gilbert. All making "just" 60 million on their contracts. Gilbert and Caron are worth much more. Plus, guys like Haywood and Stevenson are a real bargain. Anyone missing the oft injured overpayed Hughes now??? The second he rejected the first offer I said let him go. If our Euro guys develop and Blatche continues to improve and gets bigger we're looking pretty good for the future. I predict the conference finals next year and the finals the year after.

Anyone had a Lebron sighting recently? Wade is human without Shaq but still really good. The only truly great player in the league right now is ...............Gilbert Arenas!!!!

Lol, yeah I am. :) If you're making me choose between him and Stevenson I'm taking Larry every time.

Now if you're making me choose between him and Caron, that's entirely different!

Blatche seems to be improving every night, that's a really good sign.

"The Bucks are to the Wizards as the Wizards are to the Cavs."

Very evenly matched teams, but I like the Bucks big men a hair more. Let's put it this way, if the playoffs started tonight I wouldn't want the Wiz to face them. The last two games heavily reminded me of the Wiz/Cavs playoff series last year.

Took this off of ESPN's take on tonights game, thought it was amusing:

"The Wizards took a lighthearted approach to the return of the old ball. A video montage shown between the first and second quarters showed the microfiber ball exploding like the Death Star -- accompanied by the "Star Wars" theme music. Then the leather ball was shown getting out of bed, crossing a street, getting into a cab, punching some meat in a meat locker and victoriously climbing the steps of the Lincoln Memorial -- all to the theme from "Rocky.""

Gotta love ESPN's priorities. :)

"Can someone 'splain to me why Jarvis Hayes is on the court?"

I honestly think something's up with EG. AD's minutes are going down and Hayes going up. That alone makes no sense to me. Blatche is seeing more playing time as well and EG is hyping him up. You never know with that guy. ;)

Ivan: Can you shed some light on what is going on with Daniels? He played only 9 minutes tonight when it seems he played well, and didn't he get just a couple minutes in another recent game? It seems he could be getting some of Hayes minutes if not giving the starters a little more of a breather.

Do I take a Stevenson over Hughes, hell no. The idea is that this team the way it is constructed now is better than the way it would have been had we signed Hughes. 70 something million for a player that plays 50 games a year and spends 20 of those getting reacclimated to playing again is not worth it at all.

Booth's mechanics suck! It only looks better because it is going in the one or two times he shoots a game. Hayes shot is just not falling and I can't tell you why, but he is playing himself into a cheap contract for next season whether it is with the Wiz or not. I would bench Hayes in favor of Mason depending on the matchup. See what some PT has done for Blatche! How about some Blatche, Haywood, Jamison/Butler, Stevenson/Butler, Arenas in the lineup at the same time? I say go tall not small!!!!!

I meant to ask about Daniels too. He is not driving or scoring much, but he will not hurt you while he is on the court either. I wonder if he is nursing some sort of injury or is just gassed for some reason. He is 32/33??

This game changed when one thing happened: Blatche came in. His defensive energy seemed to lift the other players, and they picked it up on D as well. The Bucks shot lights out in the first half, but the Wiz really shut them down in the second. Glad to see Eddie's giving the kid real PT. Let's hope it continues when Etan/Darius come back. Andray NEEDS to be on the court.

BTW, I thought the game was fairly well reffed. They were really letting them play, but it was on both sides. Yeah, they missed some Bucks fouls, but Redd was fouled several times that weren't called.

And I agree with everyone here: Jarvis Hayes is a waste of space. Antonio needs to be getting his minutes.

Brendan didn't play much, I think because a) his ankle still isn't there yet, and b) because Blatche was terrific.

The refs let a lot go granted, but the foul on Caron and subsequent fastbreak still very easily could have cost us the game. It was about as obvious as a foul can get!!! If you could grab somebody's arm and rip the ball out nobody would ever score.

Again, Hayes seems like a good dude, but another thing about his game I don't like right now besides the obvious is he is not playing with any intensity. His fouled layup at the end should have been a dunk!!!

Gotta like Blatche on offense, but watch his D before you get crazy about him. His two blocked shots are like Hughes' steals --- they mask some real weaknesses on defense.

Jarvis may never become what some of us think he should. He certainly is going through a long, slow comeback; but, if he does get his shot back, he's big, fast, a leaper who can slash. The question is whether he can justify the coach's commitment to his recovery. At some point, he's gonna have to produce his potential or sit or be traded. Meanwhile, EJ's getting by without his Bigs...Ruffin, Thomas, Songaila, and a whole Heywood. Pretty amazing.

Forget a crappy contract, Jarvis is playing his way into the NBDL the way this season is going. His defense is atrocious also. I think he gives up more and-1's than anyone on our team. Between Eddie's use of Jarvis, Antonio Daniels, and some of Eddie Jordan's other questionable decisions, Eddie has cost us 2-3 games on his coaching alone.

Forget all of that though, Arenas is the MAN!! on top of how far away the shot was, he had a hand on his face too!

DS > LH. Why? LH never is on the court long enough & DS is still developing ala LH did in his early 20's.
Plus DS isn't asked to carry the team & plays his role perfectly.
LH is a #2 option & a fragile 1 @ that.

Back on topic:
Concerns are AD's lack of playing time recently (gotta think he's hurt somewhere) & JH aweful play so far. But gotta remember he's been out of action for the better part of 2 years!

Man-I only got home in time to see the last shot by Milwaukee and then Gilbert's shot to win it. Incredible! I was screaming at the TV wondering why he was taking his time walking the ball up the court. He has no conscious does he Kobe? I can't name one player that would have walked the ball up and shot that shot from that deep- Not even Jordan during his prime. The funy thing is, we have seen him to that like 7 times this year, so I should not have been shocked.

I'm not sure about the games prior to these last two, but it seemed like AD's effectiveness is not as high going against Milwaukee's zone defense all game long. He seems to be lacking a lot of confidence on his outside shot and unlike Arvis, has not been pulling the trigger much. You need good shooters to make them pay for playing the zone, right now AD does not want to shoot and it was never one of his strengths in the first place.

Another great game, amazing shot by Arenas. 9-1 now with Haywood starting. No, I would not rather have Stevenson than Larry Hughes, not in a heartbeat. Hughes' contract demands were not much more than Stevenson, AD, and Jarvis combined, and Hughes is way better than all three. Why is AD not playing much? Simple, because he stinks. If you can't shoot and you're under 6-8, you aren't going to get on the court in the NBA.

Mike - you can't compare Hughes' contract to those three. You need those bodies. If the Wiz had signed Hughes, they wouldn't be able to afford Butler. EG has done a fantastic job filling in this roster (assuming the big guys get healthy).

In response to Mike, Stevenson ($.9), Hayes ($2.6) and Daniels ($5.4) are making $8.9 million this year, and because Stevenson and Hayes are not guaranteed next year, $5.8 next year. Hughes is making $13.3 mill this year, $12 mill next, $12.8 the year after, and $13.6 the year after that. Tim is right that with Hughes (who I think was a great backcourt partner with Arenas), you can't have Butler.

I liked Mike Wise's "Stay the Course" column this morning about how the Wizards shouldn't trade anyone, especially in light of him pushing for a trade for Kenyon Martin last summer. Thank god he's not the g.m.

It is good to see some talk about defense from Jordan isn't it! Ivan, keep on asking the coach the question. Our offense is championship quality but our D must improve. Maybe EJ reads the blog!

I loved Wise's column today. If EG gets serious offers for Garnett for Jamison and throw-ins, he MUST listen. Great chemistry can take us a little further than we have been, but it can't get us the trophy. I think that Garnett is a leader also and would quickly blend with Gilbert. He would get better shots (15 footers) here with this mix than he does out their in Minnesota. My feelings about Antwan are the same. You don't give him away because he has value. But for KG? Ernie...make it happen, please!

How long till Wilbon jumps all over the Arenas story that's developing right now?

Wilbon has allready written Arenas up big time - see his great column of 12/29 in the Post. "Still, all of these elements revolve around Arenas, who is in the midst of the greatest scoring binge of his career..." per Wilbon - think he is getting his props, don't you?

That article was published a few days ago. Arenas has had stardom written on him for the past couple years. Everyone knows about Arenas now, but who knew first? Wilbon is more concerned about chasing the "hot" stars all around the country, he needs to recognize legit talent right here in DC.

Check out his chats: The guy will talk about Kobe, Lebron, Wade any time of the day. You ask him a question about the Wizards and he's basically like, don't know, ask me latter when they actually matter.

My first post here - had to chime in after last night. I'm a fireman and I got a call about a month ago regarding an emergency situation. Got to the scene and see some guy on a basketball court engulfed in flames yelling "Hibachi" at the top of his lungs. Took my extinguisher and sprayed him to put out the flames....realized the extinguisher was filled with gas. My bad.

Is it just me, or does anyone else have Courtney Alexander flashbacks whenever they see Jarvis on the court?

You cannot fault Wilbon. He's a writer who's trying to have his stuff read. You write about guys that will make people read. From his perspective, what has gilbert ever won? We have one playoff series win. That's it. Wade has a title and lebron is lebron.

I'm tired of reading about the other guys but 99% of American sports fans are not. We have to remember that Wilbon is a national columnist who writes for the Post. He is all over ESPN on PTI and covering games as an analyst so he has to cater to that.

With a bit of a playoff run, Le Wiz might start to get that kind of attention and Gilbert might have those trypes of stories written about him with much higher frequency. I love Gilbert like I love meals, good scotch and Baxter here...but it takes a little time to get that recognition if you're not already pre-anointed when you come into the league.

Re Larry Hughes: Has he earned a penny of that hank Cleveland gave him? He is not a $13 mill a yr basketball player, especially not at the 15 ppg he's avg'd with the Cavs. Dude is 27, injury prone and his numbers are declining.

Okay, I have to ask dude, 9-1 with Haymania starting, but dude played just 20 minutes! I mean, seriously, if Hay took the jump ball at tipoff and then sat the whole game, Hibachi-time goes for 60 and we win, do you really expect anyone to buy into the "start Hay and we win" argument?

And yeah, Wilbon needs to just do a mea culpa and ask Gil for forgiveness. His problem is, he's so jaded and bitter by years of bad Skins and Wiz teams that he's afraid to cheer because he thinks the teams are just going to fold sooner or later.

I don't care what market you cover, you can't deny or ignore Hibachi Zero any longer. Jump on board the bandwagon, guys.

Whatever you feel about B Hay, you gotta love his quotes in today's bit about what he's wearing to Gil's party and the party's $1 mill price tag.

"I don't get into all that, man," Brendan Haywood said. "Hey, I'm gonna look nice, and I'm gonna pick it out 30 minutes before I go. C'mon man, that's female stuff, sitting around for two or three weeks, trying to decide the perfect outfit. Are you serious?"

"I've never actually spent money on a birthday party, nor will I ever," Haywood said. "Me, I can't spend a lot of money on something I'm not gonna be able to have touch or see, or that's gonna make me some money the next day."

I think that JH will be a solid player once he gets it together. Looking at his previous seasons he was decent. I think he plays will no confidence and has been set back a lot due to 2 years of injury. He needs to step up because we are in need of more scoring off the bench!